Latest news with #KellyMartinezSemrad
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New ICE pact could have Florida jail staff driving immigrants to Alligator Alcatraz
ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County jail staff could be directed — at county expense — to haul immigration detainees to 'Alligator Alcatraz' or other detention facilities used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement if county commissioners approve an amended pact with the agency. 'I'm gonna fight it,' said commissioner Nicole Wilson, who cast one of the board's two no votes March 26 against the original Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with ICE to hold agency detainees from around Florida at the county jail. To date, jail staff has not been enlisted to move detainees, corrections spokesperson Tracy Zampaglione said. 'Orange County Corrections does not transport inmates, ICE does,' she said in an email. 'Orange County Corrections Department has not — nor do we transport inmates released to ICE custody.' But the one-page addendum on the commission's Tuesday agenda could change that. If adopted by the board, the codicil would authorize county correctional officers trained in ICE procedures to transport immigration detainees at the immigration agency's request. A Florida law passed earlier this year requires all jails in the state to cooperate with ICE. Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, the other no vote on the first ICE pact, also opposed adding to jail staff's work load. 'I don't agree with requiring our correction officers to do more work than what they're paid for and to do work they may not agree with or to do the bidding of a state government that's over-reaching,' she said Wednesday. 'We have immense public pressure to do what is right.' It is not known how many other counties in Florida or elsewhere are facing similar requests. The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava quietly signed a similar updated agreement with ICE in June, unbeknownst to community members. That agreement appears identical to the one being considered in Orange County, giving any correctional staff trained through the previous agreement the ability to transport detainees upon ICE's request. But Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings, who signed the original agreement, so far has declined to sign the addendum, according to a memo to the county commission. The Orlando Sentinel asked Demings' spokesperson for comment but had not received a response by late Wednesday afternoon. Under Orange County's existing IGSA, the county jail serves as one of a handful of facilities across the state that houses federal inmates. That means people arrested on immigration charges beyond the county's borders – in some cases 100 miles from Orange County – are booked and housed into the jail until they can be transferred to an ICE facility. That agreement has come under fire in part because the county is only reimbursed $88 per day an inmate is held, while it costs about $145 to detain someone. The new transport clause adds a deeper wrinkle. Commissioner Wilson objected particularly to the federal government's failure to fully reimburse the county for the cost of holding ICE detainees. 'I don't understand why there's this expectation to everyone that we just goose-step right in line,' she said. She said she was concerned the county would be complicit in shipping detainees swiftly without due process to 'what are probably very inhumane conditions' at places like Alligator Alcatraz, the hastily erected detention compound for ICE detainees in the Everglades. 'And we don't know what happens to them after that,' she said. Approving the amended agreement with ICE would be a huge disservice to the county's immigrant population, Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, executive director of Apopka's Hope CommUnity Center, said. 'We are a community that was built on the vitality of immigrants and immigration,' he said. 'To see our county officials turn their backs to our community values [and] to align themselves with a deportation machine, it is not only a step in the wrong direction, it's against what we stand for as a community.' A law passed during the state legislature's special session in February requires Florida jails to cooperate with ICE, but Sousa-Lazaballet argued it does not force the county to accept the agency's new terms. Other community leaders aren't so confident. Jose Rodriguez, an Orlando Episcopalian priest, said commissioners are under pressure and face possible removal from office if they don't cooperate with state and federal authorities. 'I have elected these commissioners, I've elected to represent me and represent my voice.' Rodriguez said. 'However, if they represent the wrong voice, they'll get removed from office.' He cited previous threats from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to remove city council members and commissioners from their appointed roles if they don't comply with ICE. Most recently, Uthmeier posted a letter to X where he said he would remove Key West city commissioners from office if they didn't reinstate their voided agreement with ICE. Commissioners voted to re-implement the agreement on Tuesday. Instead, Rodriguez calls on Orange County's commissioners to go down 'kicking and screaming,' by letting their community know what they really think of the agreement — even if ultimately they must approve it. 'I think the most powerful thing that each commissioner could do is speak their mind about how they're being forced — if they feel like they're being forced,' he said. 'They better put an asterisk on that.' -------------
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Orange, Osceola boards rebuff Split Oak Forest defenders' last-ditch pleas
Defenders of Split Oak Forest tried but failed Tuesday to persuade Orange County government to take legal action to halt construction of a toll road through the public land's southern wedge. Forest advocates insist Orange County has grounds to oppose the highway, even though it sits solely in the Osceola County portion of the preserve. County lawyers say they don't. Without a lawsuit to stop it, the Central Florida Expressway Authority seems set on its preferred route to run a 1.3-mile leg of the Osceola County Parkway through the forest. CFX already has planted stakes outlining the path, and on Monday Osceola County commissioners approved the plan. The Orange and Osceola meetings marked the apparent, anti-climactic conclusion of one of Central Florida's biggest environmental battles in recent years, one that pitted environmentalists against state road builders and the developers whose land will be served by the project. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the highway cut-through in a closely-watched vote almost exactly a year ago, but the Save Split Oak contingent vowed not to give up the fight. Toll road approved to cut through Split Oak Forest Nearly two dozen supporters of the forest turned out Tuesday to plead with Orange County to intercede. They argued that Osceola County's deal with CFX violates the original pact signed in the 1990's by Orange and Osceola counties to buy the 1,689-acre forest, now considered vital habitat for gopher tortoises and other endangered species. But Orange County Attorney Jeff Newton says the county has no say because CFX will use land only in Osceola. 'This board and the citizens and voters of Orange County could not vote to restrict or regulate any lands in Osceola County,' he explained to a crowd in Orange County Commission chambers. 'They don't have the jurisdiction to do so.' Orange County owns 1,004 acres of the forest. Osceola owns the other 685. Orange County Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad wanted the county — either through Newton's office or outside counsel — to seek an injunction to stop the project, insisting the entire forest would be harmed by the intrusion across Osceola's segment. 'It's not just about what happens on Osceola's part of the forest,' she said. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the board has thoroughly vetted the issue through a series of meetings and agreements last year. 'I do believe Orange County has taken appropriate action to protect the portion of Split Oak that Orange County owns,' he said. In their Monday meeting, Osceola County commissioners approved the agreement with CFX without discussion. The 11-page document spells out Osceola's duty to release its conservation easement to the road builders. Only a few people attended the meeting. Two held signs that read 'hands off our nature.' 'I just think this is horrible so I had to come,' said Linda Chastain, who sat in the second row of the commission chambers. 'I heard about this being on Osceola's agenda last minute so I had to rush over here.' She attended Orange County's meeting, too, occasionally waving a multi-colored sign that read, 'PROTECT NATURE SERIOUSLY…IT'S UP TO YOU!' But even Semrad — elected last year after promising to continue the fight — could muster little hope by the meeting's end. She listed possible legal issues the county could pursue but added, 'Or is it time for us to just say to the people, 'We've got no shot here. You've lost.' ' shudak@
